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^ c REPORT BY THE COMMITTEE 



Contrabands' Relief Commission 



OF CINCINNATI, OHIO 



PROPOSING A PLAN 



FOR THE OCCUPATION AND GOVERNMENT OF VACATED 
TERRITORY IN THE SECEDED STATES. 



CINCINNATI: 

GAZETTE STEAM PRINTING HOUSE, FOURTH AND VINE STREETS. 

1863. 



.Cis 



'OS" 



CONTRABAND BELIEF COMMISSION, 



Cincinnati, October 20, 1863 
Resolved, That George Graham and John W. Hartwell be appointed to 
report a plan for the sustenance of the Freedmen, made free by the Presi- 
dent's Proclamation, and the occnpation of vacated territory in the Seceded 
States. 



Cincinnati, October 27, 1863. 
At a meeting of the Cincinnati Contraband Relief Commission, the Report 
of the Committee on the Sustenance of Freedmen, and the occupation of va- 
cated territory in the Seceded States, was unanimously adopted, and 3000 
copies ordered to be printed for distribution. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 



The Committee appointed to suggest a plan for the present 
sustenance and future government of the Freedmen of the 
Southern States, declared free by the Proclamation of the Pres- 
ident of the United States, beg leave to say, that your Commit- 
tee feel the magnitude and importance of the problem presented 
to them, and acknowledge their inability to grasp the subject, 
or to render that justice to the cause which it demands, and 
which more competent minds may hereafter present to the na- 
tion, aided by developments now in daily progress, modifying 
and altering different views to suit peculiar circumstances. 

There are a great many difficulties to be encountered in any 
scheme of Emancipation which is to change suddenly, the forced 
or slave labor of three millions of people, into hired labor and 
a state of freedom. These difficulties are increased during the 
existence of a civil war, raging in the States where the slaves 
are to be liberated, and where there is a feeling in the master 
of exasperation, which leads him to thwart the operation of a 
system which has been forced upon him, and which is so odious to 
his education, that some Rebel masters would prefer to sacrifice 
the lives of their slaves, rather than to allow their capture, or 
to see freedom conferred on them by the Union Army. 

Nowhere else has pro-Slavery fanaticism been so strong; the 
belief in the moral soundness of the institution has been no- 
where so implicit ; nowhere, therefore, would the introduction 
of a free industry have to encounter, on the part of the mas- 



6 

ters, such violent prejudices. Under such tyranny, and under 
such circumstances, the desire of the emancipated negro to 
break with his former mode of life, could scarce fail to be extreme- 
ly strong ; and with such feelings between master and slave, 
the freedman would require efficient protection to preserve his 
freedom during the existence of the rebellion. This would 
necessarily require a suitable military force until the rebels are 
subdued ; and after that, civil jurisdiction under the General 
Government, or under a provisional government, might be sub- 
stituted for the military, as a preliminary step to the recon- 
struction of State Governments. 

It will be unnecessary for this Committee to state in full the 
cause of this unholy Rebellion. It is well known to you that 
the war was commenced by the South for no other reason, on 
no other pretext, than because a Republican President was 
elected in the ordinary constitutional course. If we ask why 
this was made the cause of revolt, the true answer is found in 
the aims of the Slave Power — aims which were inconsistent 
with its remaining in the Union, while the Government was 
carried on upon the principle of restricting the extension of its 
domain. So long as it was itself the dominant party, so long 
as it could employ the powers of the Government in propaga- 
ting its peculiar institution, and consolidating its strength — so 
lono- it was content to remain in the Union ; but from the mo- 
ment when, by the constitutional triumph of the Republicans, 
the Government passed into the hands of a party whose dis- 
tinctive principle was to impose a limit on the further extension 
of Slavery, from that moment its continuance in the Union was 
incompatible with its essential objects; and from that moment 
the Slave Power resolved to break loose from Federal ties. 
The war had thus its origin in Slavery : nevertheless the prox- 
imate issue with which the North had to deal was not Slavery, 
but the right of Secession. For the Constitution not having 
prohibited Slavery within the particular States, so long as the 
South confined its proceedings within its own boundaries, the 
Government, which represented the Constitution, could not take 



cognizance of its acts, and it was on the right of Secession 
claimed by the South, that the North was compelled to join is- 
sue. Thus when the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, the 
Northern people, taken by surprise, its leaders unaccustomed 
to power, its arsenals in the hands of its enemies, with traitors 
in its public offices, divided into parties holding discordant 
views, and recommending different courses, unanimous only in 
one strong wish, a desire at all events to uphold the Union, 
seemed for a time prepared to make any concession which 
promised to secure this end. On the other hand no vacillation 
marked the South, 

With the directness of men, who, fixed in their ends, have 
little scruple in the choice of their means, its leaders were ur- 
gent to precipitate the catastrophe. Their skillfully contrived 
treason had secured for them the principal forts, and almost 
the whole military stores Of the Republic. The most exper- 
ienced officers in the United States Army, were their trusted 
agents, and were rapidly passing over to their side. Elatedby 
success, and confident in their resources, it seemed at the out- 
set of the contest that they had all but accomplished their dar- 
ing scheme ; that little remained for them but to seize upon 
Washington, and dictate from the Capital the terms of separa- 
tion. Such was the position of affairs when the contest opened. 
More than two years have now passed, and contingencies which 
then appeared imminent seem no longer within the range of pos- 
sible events. The true source of disaffection, so long concealed, 
has been laid bare, and is no longer doubted. The impossibili- 
ty of bringing free and slave societies into harmonious co-ope- 
ration under the same political system, begins to be understood. 
The absolute necessities of breaking at all hazards the strength 
of Slave Power, as the first step towards re-establishing polit- 
ical society in North America, is rapidly becoming the accepted 
creed. Meanwhile the advance of the Northern armies in the 
field, has kept pace with that of the opinion in public assem- 
blies, and by an almost unbroken series of fruitful victories, the 
military superiority of the North seems now to be definitively 



established. In this aspect of affairs, with anti-Slavery opinions 
making rapid way in the North, and the Northern armies stead- 
ily advancing on the Southern States, the reconstruction of the 
Union with Slavery retained on its former footing, and still 
more the triumph of the Slave Power, may, it seems to your 
Committee, be fairly discharged from their consideration. 

In the progress of our army in the Soutbern States, it was 
clearly demonstrated that the slave population of the seceded 
Rebel States were contributing the most important aid to the 
Rebel armies by erecting their fortifications as a system of de- 
fense, and in the field performing the fatigue duty of the army, 
thus relieving the Confederate soldier from labor, and enabling 
him at all times to swell the ranks at short notice. Another 
portion of their slaves were on the plantations engaged in agri- 
cultural pursuits, furnishing the food and means of sustaining 
the army in the field. Under such circumstances, it was clear- 
ly seen that the chief element of strength in the Confederate 
States was the slave population. President Lincoln, therefore, 
issued his Proclamation, giving freedom to all the slaves of the 
seceded Rebel States, and as our armies advanced upon slave 
territory, the slaves left by their masters upon their plantations 
were taken within our lines and declared forever free. Thus 
they assembled at various points. Five or six thousand at 
Natchez, twenty thousand at Vicksburg, six thousand at Mem- 
phis, four thousand at Corinth, and at several places in Arkan- 
sas and Louisiana, making the number, including women and 
children, about 50,000. 

These contrabands of all ages, male and female, deserted 
by their masters, who fled to the rebel lines, were received 
within the lines of our army in a starving condition, destitute 
of the means of living, with the exception of such provision as 
could be afforded for temporary relief by the commissaries of 
the army. The Contraband Relief Association of this city, 
with other institutions organized for a similar purpose, have 
contributed the principal part of the clothing for the women 
and children, with cooking utensils and some agricultural im- 



plements, which, during the winter and summer months, were 
indispensably necessary. 

It will be remarked here that the able-bodied male portion 
of this class of contrabands, anxious to sustain their freedom, 
and to contribute their part in subduing the rebels, have en- 
listed in the Union armies, leaving their families within the 
Union limes. That they have done their duty nobly and brave- 
ly, let the battlefields of Port Hudson, Vicksburg, Morris Is- 
land, and the fields in Arkansas, answer for them. 

It is to the families of these contrabands that this Commission 
wish to call the attention of the Government, believing it to be 
highly important that immediate relief should be provided before 
the inclemency of the winter season shall set in, and find them 
without the means to obtain shelter, food or clothing. To as- 
sist in this work, your Committee have been directed by the 
Board of Managers to suggest such plan as they deem best for 
the future welfare of the contrabands, and also the best mode 
of reconstructing and populating the seceded States embraced 
in the Proclamation of the President. 

What is the fact with which we have to deal ? 

A few hundred thousand slaveholders break loose from the 
political system with which they were connected, and erect a 
Confederacy on the avowed basis of Slavery, making the revival 
of the slave trade the corner-stone — a trade which all Christian 
nations have united in abolishing, and condemned as piracy. 
We know that the slaveholders aim at political independence, 
not for that lawful purpose which makes political independence 
the first of national rights — the purpose of working out a peo- 
ple's proper destiny — but for a purpose which makes it the 
greatest of national crimes. Now, these being the ends for 
which the Southern Confederacy seeks to establish itself, is it 
not justifiable to occupy their territory by their own popula- 
tion, converted from slavery to freedom under the Proclamation 
of the President? Your Committee deem it as much a duty, as 
to suppress murder or piracy, and having put our hands to the 
plow, we cannot lookback whilst those States in rebellion against 



10 

Union are in hostility to the best Government on earth, which 
stands now as the beacon light, directing the way of the nations 
of the earth to freedom and liberty. Therefore, we cannot re- 
treat from the position which we have assumed, and the world 
must admit, that the overthrow of the Southern Confederacy 
would be a benefit to the lovers of freedom in every part of the 
globe. 

It will be observed that the Proclamation of the President 
applies only to those States which are mentioned in'it, as in a 
state of rebellion. The other States, termed the Border States, 
are not affected by it, only so far as compensation may be vol- 
untarily received by the masters, in giving freedom to their 
slaves, or their enlistment in the Union army. 

Several modes have been suggested for terminating this war, 
and the reconstruction of the Government in the seceded States. 
One is to assign to Slavery the unsettled districts of the South 
and West. Another to reconstruct the Union, restoring Slave- 
ry on its former footing in the Rebel States. Another is to re- 
construct the Union, and return the slaves made free by the 
Proclamation to their former owners. The first two modes 
would be deprecated by every freeman, as it would be commit- 
ing a moral and freedom-loving people to a complicity with the 
damning guilt of Slavery. The third proposition, to return 
freemen to their former masters, to be held again as slaves, 
would cap the climax of all the crimes and iniquity of human 
nature. 

Another proposition is colonizing the slaves on foreign terri- 
tory. This was a favorite measure in time of peace with your 
Committee, but the Rebel States having commenced hostilities, 
and precipitated civil war on the free States, it became neces- 
sary to take away the prop of the rebellion, and to free their 
slaves on the plantations, after the masters had rejected the in- 
vitation to become loyal to the Union. 

The Government, therefore, has but one course to adopt : to 
subdue the Rebellion and deal humanely with the slaves, by 
providing for their future happiness and freedom, on the soil 



11 

where they have suffered their degradation from inhuman laws 
establishing Slavery. 

Your Committee, therefore, discard these several proposi- 
tions mentioned, and suggest the occupation of the seceded 
States'by taking possession of the property of known rebels by 
military authority, or under an act of confiscation, and as fast 
as the army takes possession of the vacated property of such 
rebels, let it be transferred to the Union Government, and un- 
der a proper system rented or leased to loyal men, who would 
employ the freedmen to cultivate the lands under a system of 
monthly or daily pay for their labor. By this mode an emigra- 
tion of free and loyal men would introduce industry and enter- 
prise in every part of the conquered States. 

The freedmen and their families would be provided for from 
the regular pay for their labor, and being in a climate suited to 
their health and habit3, they would be employed in pursuits of 
agriculture familiar to them. Thus both the laborer and em- 
ployer would soon derive mutual benefit from the change, and 
instead of the amount of product produced under a system of 
slavery, by the introduction of machinery and proper agricul- 
tural implements, the soil would yield double the crops hereto- 
fore gathered. The laborers having been lifted from the degra- 
ded state of bondage, would have new impulses to provide for 
their own comforts, and to secure for themselves by their own 
industry, permanent homes, and education for their offspring. 

This plan of occupation of the seceded States, will require 
law and order infused into it by the Government of the United 
States, and many regulations for the protection of those who 
lease the land, as well as regulations for those who labor on 
them, will be required, under proper authority, for holding the 
scales of justice properly balanced between the parties ; and, 
as. the State laws of the rebellious States are abolished by their 
act of treason, new laws must be adopted to suit the circum- 
stances. In relation to the laws of the Rebel States, the Com- 
mittee here quote from the late letter of Robert Dale Owen, of 
October 18th, 1863, (one of the Commissioners appointed to 



12 

investigate the condition of the freedmen.) In relation to 
State law, he says, that " One inhabitant, or all the inhabitants 
of a State may, by crime, forfeit their political rights. If all 
the inhabitants of a State, by some general crime legally impu- 
table to all, forfeit their political rights, there will be no one re- 
maining legally empowered to act under the Constitution of the 
State, or of the United States. 

This is the present condition of the inhabitants of the insur- 
gent States. The Supreme Court (claimants of Schooner Bril- 
liant, &c, against the United States, March Term, 1868,) has 
decided, that these inhabitants, without distinction as to indi- 
vidual loyalty or disloyalty, have, in law, the same rights only 
as foreign enemies invading the land. ISo one of them has a 
legal right to exercise the functions of Governor, or Judge, or 
State Representative. Nor have they a right to elect a Gover- 
nor, or a member to the State Legislature." 

If these views are correct, your Committee believe that it 
may become necessary for the Congress of the United States? 
at their next session, to establish a Bureau, to be styled the 
" Bureau of Emancipation," with officers recommended by the 
President, and authorized by Congress, located in Washington, 
whose duty it shall be to have the general charge of such busi- 
ness and regulations, which may become necessary in the gov- 
ernment of the freedmen, under the President's proclamation, 
and also the occupation of the property and lands in possession, 
and which may come into possession of the general Government 
by conquest, in the seceded States. 

The Bureau at Washington to have branch offices, or agents, 
located in the several counties or parishes of each State. Such 
agents, commissioners or superintendents in the seceded States, 
should be required to pass an examination before a suitable 
board of examiners, appointed by the President, for tlie pur- 
pose of judging of the qualifications of the applicants, and 
their appointments made with the sanction of the President. 
Such agents and superintendents to have power to lease lands 
and other property, and to make report of their acts to the prin- 



13 

cipal Bureau monthly ; also, to make reports to a Provisional 
Governor, or any other officer in the seceded States, who may 
be authorized by the United States Government to receive such 
reports. 

The Secretary of the principal Bureau should be required to 
report annually to the Congress of the United States. 

The officers of the branch offices in the several counties of 
the seceded States, ought to exercise discretionary power in 
dividing or sub- dividing lands or estates, and fixing the terms 
of lease, and providing from the proceeds of the property, an 
educational fund, to be appropriated yearly to the education of 
the families of freedmen. It might also be necessary during 
the existence of the rebellion, to designate certain points in 
each State as a place of rendezvous for freedmen and their fam- 
ilies, who are left destitute on plantations deserted by their 
masters, thus, by removal, saving them from starvation until 
they could obtain labor and support. 

Your Committee believe that the system recemmended will 
be the best adapted to the population and occupation of the se- 
ceded States during the existence of a civil war ; best calcu- 
lated to afford freedom and happiness to a class of men who have 
been governed by custom and laws, contrived with the single 
view of degrading the negro to the level of the brute, and 
blotting out from his mind the hope, and even idea of freedom. 

In abolishing slavery a new order of things is introduced, in 
which the ascendency of the men who now rule in the South 
would be at an end. An immigration of new men would set 
in rapidly from various quarters. The planters and their ad- 
herents would no longer be in the majority in their old domin- 
ions. New interests would take root and grow ; new social 
ideas would germinate ; new political combinations would be 
formed, and the party which has long swayed the politics of the 
Union would be gone forever. 

In the agricultural condition of the country new systems 
would be introduced, and a diversity of agricultural products 
encouraged. 



14 

The rebel slave States in the South, have made cotton their 
principal crop, which has been exported to England for manu- 
facture by English inechinery, and all other considerations be- 
came secondary to this staple product. The manufacturing in- 
terest, and the diversity of agricultural pursuits, in raising a 
variety of crops, were unheeded in the South. The conse- 
quence was, that they became the slaves to the owners of the 
Manchester spindles, in furishing them the raw material to be 
returned to them in fabrics at exorbitant prices, making England 
the great workshop of the Southern States. This system will 
be changed by the introduction of free labor. The mechanical 
skill and enterprise of freemen will soon introduce the loom 
and the spindle into the vicinity of the cotton field, and the 
cotton will be converted into cloth at home, without sending 
the raw material to the English spindles. Other machinery will 
soon follow. The wool on the spot will be converted into cloth, 
and exchanged with the clothier. The saw-mill will be at hand 
and exchanges will be made with the sawyer. The tanner will 
give leather for his hides, and the paper-maker will give paper 
for his rags. 

Thus the expense and disadvantage, under which the system 
of slavery has labored, by sending the raw material out of the 
country, will be avoided. 

" In a piece of cloth,"' says Adam Smith, " weighing eighty 
pounds, there are not only more than eighty pounds of wool, but 
also several thousand weight of corn, the maintenance of the 
working people, and it is the wool and the corn that travel 
cheaply in the form of cloth." 

It is further important to observe that Slavery requires ex- 
pansion of territory as the soil becomes exhausted. In free 
communities property becomes fixed in edifices, in machinery, 
and in improvements of the soil. In slave communities there 
is scarcely any property except slaves, and they are easily 
moveable. 

The man who exhausts his land attaches little value to it, 






15 

and he abandons it ; but be attaches much value to the slave 
whom he can carry away with him. 

It is by the dignity of labor and freedom that a nation pros- 
pers. "These once established, the necessity of a military 
occupation, the rule of force, will cease ; our political life will 
soon return to the beaten track of self-government, and the 
restored Union may safely trust itself to the good faith of a 
reformed people. The antagonistic element which continually 
struggles against the vital principles of our system of govern- 
ment, once removed, we shall be a truly united people, with 
common principles, common interests, common hopes, and a 
common future." 

Your Committee do not deem it necessary to enter more fully 
into all the details necessary for the government of the people 
in the seceded States. They infer that so long as hostilities 
continue, military rule will be adopted, and such regulations as 
military authority may dictate, will conform to the state of the 
country and circumstances where the orders are issued. It is, 
however, highly important that some system be adopted for 
furnishing labor to the freedmen, and the authorities at "Wash- 
ington are earnestly solicited to provide the means for the sup- 
port of the freedmen and their families, who are at the various 
locations in the Mississippi valley without the prospect of labor, 
and dustitute of everything but the daily rations and clothing 
furnished the male population by the Quartermasters at the 
several military posts. 

GEO. GRAHAM, 
JON. W. HARTWELL, 

Committee. 

Cincinnati, Oct, 27, 1863. 



Therefore, your Committee, in accordance with the views con- 
tained in the report, offer the following resolutions for adoption: 

Resolved, That the military authorities at Washington be 
earnestly requested to authorize such measures as may be nec- 
essary to relieve the families of the freedmen, made free by the 



16 

President's proclamation, and now assembled at several camps 
or military posts on the Mississippi river and other places, thus 
to prevent great destitution and distress, which must otherwise 
occur during the coming winter. 

Resolved, That we deem it to be the true policy of the gen- 
eral Government, to take possession of the vacated estates, and 
other property deserted by rebel owners, who are known to be 
traitors to the Union, and to authorize the occupation of such 
estates by loyal men under a leasehold system, making it a con- 
dition to employ as far as practicable contrabands or freedmen, 
and their families, made free under the President's proclama- 
tion, providing under a system of paid labor, for the support of 
such colored persons, during such periods of time as may be 
agreed on by the parties concerned'. 

JResolved, That a Bureau of Emancipation should be estab- 
lished, by authority of Congress, in Washington, for the pur- 
pose of taking charge of the business relating to the territory 
in the seceded States, which may be in possession of the general 
Government ; and also, the future occupation of such territory 
by freedmen, made free by the proclamation of the President of 
the United States. 



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